Hi Everyone,

I'm still planning out my timeline to apply for schools to start in the Fall of 2018. I have a pretty low GPA (3.49) and don't know my LSAT score yet (will be taking in Sept). I've had about 3 years of working experience in law firms as a practice assistant.

Like most, I have a good list of schools I'm applying to with safeties, targets and reaches.

I plan on asking a teacher or work supervisor for recommendations when the time comes, but the problem is I'm embarrassed to ask for letters to my reach schools. I'm talking Harvard, Columbia, etc. as my reach and I feel like people would just laugh at my face.

Has anyone ever had this issue before? These are my dream schools, but with my GPA I don't seriously think I'll get in - I'm just kind of applying to "see if it could ever happen" (and obviously on the off chance that I would be accepted - I would attend). I'm aware this could be a waste of time/money, but I will regret it if I don't apply to these schools.

Hi,

I graduated from the UK with an upper-second class honours. I looked online and I think it translates to 3.4 / 4.00. My question is do law schools look at the converted GPA the same way they look at US graduates' GPAs? My dream school is Northwestern. with an LSAT score of 162-166 do I have a good chance of being admitted? all other things equal.

Thanks,

I really want to wait until my last semester grades are posted before applying, which would be mid-December. My PT score is 165, and 173 BR and I'll be taking the LSAT in September. I already have my PS, LOR, addendum, and additional essays prepared so really I could apply once the September LSAT grades are posted.

I would greatly appreciate any advice. I would like to apply in October, however, I recognize patience is a virtue. Looking mostly T-40 schools. Thanks!

I go to a Canadian university where the 4.0 scale isn't used and, rather, we receive percentages and letter grades on our official transcripts. I read on another website that when calculating the LSAC GPA in such circumstances where both percentages and letter grades are available, then only letter grades will be used. Can anyone confirm that this is in fact true?

My GPA is significantly different when I use percentages vs. grade letters to calculate it, so it's very important for me to figure this out. Thanks in advance!

Hey everybody! This is my first time posting here so my apologizes if this post breaks forum etiquette.

Right now I'm considering whether or not a need a GPA addendum. From my undergraduate institution, LSAC will calculate that I have a 3.94 and within my time at my undergraduate institution I have steadily raised my GPA by small margins every semester. The problem is that I have some old DE credits from 4 years ago that will come back to haunt me and bring my LSAC calculated UGPA all the way to 3.72.

My ideal school is Georgetown having a median GPA of 3.77 and I'm still four points shy of their median LSAT (sitting in September to hopefully immediately apply ED after the scores come back.)

My question is should I write an addendum basically confessing I was a stupid teenager who didn't take life seriously and has since applied myself and steadily brought my GPA up every semester since? I'm almost worried that writing that addendum will highlight past poor grades without helping too much as I'm only .05 below their median.

What do you guys think? Additionally, if you think I should write it, should I include that since going to college I've held a 3.94 or does that not assist the addendum?

What should i ask my proffesors to include in a letter of recommendation? Neither of them are from the US and i know that when i ask them for a LOR they arent going to know what the norm recomendation includes

3.81gpa, 158 lsat. I'll probably take the LSAT again in December to try to get a 160+.

UC Hastings has 75th percentile gpa of 3.61 and 75th percentile lsat of 161

Any chance of getting merit scholarships with my current stats?

Hello Sages,

I just had a quick thought/question about doing the early decision programs, particularly for Gtown and NU. I am probably going to ED for both or one of the schools as they are my top two choices. My June LSAT score is just below the median at both schools, so I think ED will be advantageous, right? Although I am going to retake in September, I doubt if it's going to be a drastic increase. I noticed that for NU, their website states they do not allow students to apply ED at any other schools, but Gtown has no such rules. Thus, my question is can I apply ED at Gtown before or after applying to NU, if I get rejected at one school before applying to the other? Will they know if I have applied? Has anyone done it before? Anyone in similar situations?

Thanks and good luck to everyone. Happy LSATs!

So, as a URM myself it's pretty awesome to hear that your chances of admission to harder schools with lower than the median scores at those schools increase. I see users on the URM forum on TLS post their admissions from this past cycle and the results are incredible. I'm aiming for the highest score possible but this is definitely a great confidence booster. My question is, has anyone had these "bumps" happen to them themselves or have heard about it from other law students? My concern is that these numbers only represent a VERY VERY small portion....sort of like the unicorns for URMs that were accepted.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12M14YUWQvgxsF3GXc-syd-Pn3bOcWBUWIX8AJkFbajM/edit#gid=0

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=275052

I would appreciate any feedback that anyone can give. I am applying to law schools this fall, and I am shooting particularly for YLS. How impactful will my softs be to overcome my not-so stellar UGPA (LSAC GPA 3.17) from over 10 years ago? My LSAT is 176.

Softs are:

Hello All,

I was wondering if there are any disadvantages for applying to t6/14 schools with December LSAT score.

(I'm planning to complete the whole application by the date I receive Dec. lsat score on early Jan. think: Jan. 2~5)

My top choices are Harvard, Columbia,NYU, and Cornell.

(Y,S,Chi. all seem to have relatively smaller class sizes and I feel their admission policy is very unpredictable).

Thank you in advance for your comments : )

I'm wondering how lenient/picky schools are when it comes to giving out app fee waivers. I plan to apply to many of the T14, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, UofM, Northwestern for sure, perhaps others. Paying $300+ just for apps is really going to hurt my budget. My background, I have about 25k debt from undergrad, but its not documented (loan from grandparents), im currently making about 40k yearly while paying off car loan, the aforementioned college loan, and of course daily expenses, rent etc. Also, is there any way to add an addendum to waiver applications? I would like to explain my undocumented debt etc but there's nowhere to do so in most forms I've seen.

So I've found myself in a bit of a pickle with regards to letters of rec. One of my own making, but still. I am nearly six years removed from college at this point, so finding professors who remember me is a bit of a stretch. Thankfully I applied to grad school a year after college and had to ask for recommendations. I was able to track down one of the professors who still had a copy. He made slight alterations and submitted. One down. The other two have ignored my emails, so I'm not counting on hearing from them. That leaves me in need of a minimum of one more.

Normally, I could ask a current or former manager / senior co-worker, but my situation makes that difficult. I worked for company A right after school for a few years before leaving for company B. At company B I did not get along with the team lead in my first position and ended up switching teams just before I decided to apply to law school. I left company B to return to company A as my position with company B was all encompassing and would have left less than no time to study for the LSAT or write essays. Needless to say, my second team lead there was not exactly thrilled with me leaving so shortly after switching, despite understanding my reasoning. She might have been willing to write one, but has also ignored my email. That would leave all the managers / leads I've had at company A, all would be more than willing to write me great letters of rec under normal circumstances, but having just returned I cannot tell them I'm going to be leaving just yet. This is due to financial considerations / the very likely scenario of them looking to get rid of me before I hit the one year mark due to provisions in my offer. I've thought this through pretty thoroughly and there is no one I could ask who would be likely to keep it to themselves (at least not a risk I'm willing to take).

So I'm running out of ideas. I don't do things like volunteer work, etc. I've thought to ask a few grad TAs I used to work for in college with no response (seriously, how difficult is it just to send a "no" email, this is worse than online dating*). Worst case I can probably find someone just to fill the quota, but it won't be a good one. Like, I might as well just write one myself and submit it at that point. Any outside the box ideas I might not be thinking of?

* Please note that this is a joke and I understand the impulse in both scenarios to say nothing and am ok with it.

Hi 7Sage,

I’m writing to introduce our newest admissions editor, Chris Schlegel. Chris is a Harvard doctoral candidate, Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum, published author, Henry James aficionado, and gentleman of rare eloquence. He’s also one of the most incisive editors I’ve ever met. I think he’s a perfect fit for this amazing community!

Which admissions cycle would the June 2017 LSATS be ideal for?

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To put it bluntly, my UG scores are below average - the LSAC will probably have a seizure looking at my transcripts. My transcripts will most likely have a ''Below Average'' evaluation.

I am from India - which has grading similar to UK. A 2:1(60%) is considered standard good marks while a 2:2 - ( 50 -59%) is considered death knell.

I have a 2:2.

I am certainly not expecting a T14.

So hypothetically if I manage a good LSAT score - 175+ I know that sounds a stretch.... will any T20 or T30 consider me? To what extent does LSAT scores mitigate a very low GPA?

If it helps - its been 4 years out of undergrad. I have had a great grad GPA ( wont help much), cracked a national level exam with great marks, and presently working as a lecturer.

Please help out guys.

I'm studying for the Sept test right now (will be my first test) but I want to apply this cycle. I know I should be working on my personal statement and my diversity statement but I'm really bad at multi-tasking and I worry that writing while studying at the same time might distract me from fully concentrating on the test.

Would it be too late to start on the personal statement and the diversity statement immediately after I take the Sept LSAT? Would the admissions course on 7sage help me with this?

Just finished rough drafts for my DS and PS and would love to exchange essays for edits with anyone who is interested! :)

Hi guys! I was wondering if anyone had experience or knowledge regarding how/if the LSAC calculates AP credit in with GPA.

The website says that it will factor in if your university gives credit and counts the grade. My university gives credit, but I don't think it uses those credits in GPA calculation. Does anyone know of situations where AP scores have been taken into account? Could I potentially transfer universities/enroll in an additional one and apply under it to have my AP scores factored in?

Much Appreciated!

,

Hi friends,

This is sort of a weird question, but I'm sure some of you have had similar experiences, and any advice would really help me out!

I guess I'm a nontraditional applicant in that I graduated in 2015. Since then I've been working, traveling, and making sure I actually wanted to apply to law school (I do, hooray). I was pretty successful in college, but I sort of distanced myself from my school after graduation because I was turned off by several political and social decisions being made by the administration. This is to say that I didn't do a great job of keeping in touch with my professors.

The problem is, I spent a year and a half working with one professor on my Honors History Thesis, for which I ended up winning the highest departmental awards. I viewed it as an accomplishment for both of us! He has since left my undergrad, and the school has no idea where he went. I ended up emailing one of his colleagues who asked him if it would be okay if I got in touch with him, and he said yes. I've emailed him four or five times over the last three months, to no avail. Aside from worrying about him, I'm selfishly frustrated because he was the person who knew me and my work best, and I'm afraid it will reflect poorly on me if 'honors thesis' is plastered all over my resume and then no recommendation from my advisor appears.

I have a great employer rec coming in, as well as one from a dean with whom I worked closely, and I've asked another professor who I feel pretty good about but perhaps not great. I'm aiming for a T14, and I think my GPA and softs stack up (I'm sitting in September). I would hate to miss my shot because I can't find this one guy!

Has anyone else lost their best recommender? Is this something that would be worth trying to explain, or would that be seen as making excuses/make me sound insane?

Thanks team, and seriously, good luck to everyone out there, especially those of you who've taken weird convoluted paths!!

Disclaimer: This is fairly long. However, its length may be good practice for you as an RC passage. I can write practice questions if you would like.

Hi all, I first want to say thanks to 7sage for the awesome prep course. I hadn't really used the Discussion section of 7sage until just recently but I wish I had sooner as it seems to be a great community with a lot of knowledge. I sat June 2017 and am looking to apply this cycle. My goal is to attend a T14 school, particularly one of the higher-ranked T14 schools. I have a few questions regarding retaking the LSAT, softs, and work experience.

About me: 4.0 GPA, 170 LSAT, mechanical engineering major at a top 10 engineering school, looking to probably go into intellectual property law.

As for retaking the LSAT, I figure I have good enough numbers to get into a majority of the T14 school as is, but I think an extra couple points could go a long way for chances at HYS CCN, as well as grant money everywhere. I only started to score in the 170s during the last two weeks of prep leading up to the test and had a slow upward trend all the way which I felt I could have continued and scored higher had the test been a month later. All said and done, I hit my target score that I set when I started studying seven months ago and am thrilled with it, but I do think that I can do a little better with more work. I am thinking about sitting again in September. If I am not consistently scoring above 170 on PTs leading up to September I will withdraw, and if I do not feel like I scored above 170 on the test I will cancel my score (don't want to risk getting a lower score). My question is: do schools even see that you have taken a test and cancelled? Or that you have registered and withdrawn? If so, does this hurt your application in any way? How badly would taking and getting a lower (say 168, 169) or same score hurt my application?

My softs: internships with three different companies: one of the "Big Three" auto manufacturers (2 summers), a well-known engine and machinery manufacturer (2 semesters), and a smaller engineering company (1 summer); Formula SAE team member; study abroad semester; tutor; course grader; scholarship D-1 student-athlete (2 years, at previous school before transferring to my current school)

The majority of my softs are internships, and I have heard different things as to how internships are viewed as work experience by law schools. I know a lot of schools and law firms want to see a good amount of full-time work experience, especially in industry for IP law. Do you think this combination of internships (totaling 9 months of full-time and 10 months of part-time engineering work) would be seen as a significant amount of "work experience," however that is defined by law schools, rather than merely a set of internships? Also, I graduate in December and will then be working full-time for around 7-8 months at either the auto manufacturer I have interned at or an engineering consulting firm before starting law school. I would just really rather not put off law school a whole year just to build up more work experience if it is not necessary.

If you are still reading this, you the real MVP. Thank you for any help, insight, suggestions, funny comments, whatever.

I graduated from ASU Barrett, the honors college with a 3.91 and completed an extensive honors thesis. After taking a semester long Princeton review prep class that didn't seem to help my practice test scores at all, I got a 154 on the June 2016 test. I decided to take a year off and will be working at a nice law firm for this next year. I believe I'll have great letters of rec from my my thesis director and employer. I want to retake the lsat this September but I think my score will not improve much as I will only have about two months to study again. I'm worried that my school options with these scores won't be ideal even with my higher GPA and everything else. Any thoughts or recommendations?

Hi, does anyone know for sure whether law schools even read your personal statement after seeing that your lsat score is not in their desired range?